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Posts Tagged ‘murals’

Making Murals and the Flower Show

I am a Master Gardener in training and part of the program includes volunteer hours, so I agreed to sit at the Flower Show at the NJ Convention Center in Edison, NJ. I had not been to the Flower Show in well over 15 years and it seems to have changed into a quasi flower show with a lot of crafts and people selling solar panels, “Bathfitter” conversions and pillows. But that is not where I am going with this. I want to talk about murals.

Artists and Others

When you sit at a table at a public interest venue, you meet all sorts of people and so it was that this 60 something man came to talk to us. His wife had a booth selling jewelry and he was just checking things out. He claimed that while his wife was an artist, he was not, but simply a supporter of art, one who pushes it forward.

He was, he said, very much involved with a program called 20/20, which grew out of a need for NYC’s under performing (read under funded) schools to bring art back into the schools, where it had been lost due to budget cuts. This was accomplished through partnering with community organizations and churches and artists. It started with the visual arts and bringing murals into the school buildings or, I should say, on the school walls and buildings. Now called Thrive Collective, it includes music, media and mentoring.

Thrive Collaboration: Bringing Art To Schools

All murals are student designed under an volunteer artist. It is all about encouraging collaboration and building community and in the end the completed mural stand as public art for everyone.

The Process

The process is a step by step process. Beginning with a concept and design, to surface preparation, design transfer, coloring and completion.